Lost: Season Four (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

OTOH, if the "illness" is related to the time distortion, there's no reason why it couldn't have been brought on slowly by extended exposure from living on the island rather than all-at-once by passing through the initial field around the island.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Josh Dial]

I am unsure of what you mean by this...

Dharma was around in the 70s, and that is certainly the past...

 

[Arild]

IIRC, a constant is someone with whom the "time traveler" (that is; whoever has become "unstuck in time") had some sort of bond in both time periods in which the traveler exists (hence "constant"). Once contact has been established in both times, the person is no longer "unstuck" (as we've seen with Desmond) and presumably will not need a constant any more.

Now, seeing as how Alex was a newborn at the time, there's no way Danielle could contact her if she was thrown back in time. Likewise, if she was thrown forward in time she also couldn't contact Alex because outside of a brief period 16 years later (during which Danielle did no time traveling), they never interacted.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

"during which Danielle did no time travelling". Well, no time travelling that we know of. It is true that we never see her time travel or doeing anything that remotely suggests time travel during the period she is in contact with Alex. But we also never see her doing anything remotely suggestive of time travel during any other period. So if we're going to accept the initial premise - that Danielle has travelled in time at some point and needs a constant - we can hardly any particular period of time because we didn't see her travel in time then.

I reject the notion that Danielle was ever a time traveller because there is simply no evidence to support it, not because of problems with specific details. (That Danielle acted at little "nuts" some times does not, in my view, constitute evidence of anything other than Danielle being a little nuts.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Arild]

I agree. Also, it wouldn't make sense. She killed her team mates because they were "sick". If they were actually "unstuck in time" and Danlelle figured out how to overcome it for herself, why would she continue to believe the others were sick and that she needed to kill them?

 

[Bryan Toth]

I guess that's true as well ... I had forgotten that little bit of explanation about having a "constant". I was just remembering it as someone who you would have a bond with - not necessarily in both times - but now that I think about it, that is how they described it with both Desmond and Faraday.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, she could have figured out what was causing the problem after she killed them all...

Regards,

Joe

 

[Josh Dial]

With season 4 well in hand now, I would like to add that the episode, "The Constant," was, in my humble opinion, one of the best, if not the best episode of the series. Desmond is one of my favourite characters on the show, so I am slightly biased (though, his episodes do tend to be amazing), but everything from the plot, to the acting, to the emotion was simply stellar.

 

[todd s]

Home Theater Forum operations circa 1969...

 

[Holadem]

Definitely one of the best of the series, but for me the best remains Psalm 23, the first Eko back story.

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H

 

[TravisR]

It goes way back but I'm still a huge fan of Walkabout (the first Locke flashback when they revealed he had been in a wheelchair).

 

[Mike Williams]

I watched the finale again this morning. There was speculation on the forum that perhaps something happened that caused John Locke to have to move the island again, and that's how he got off the island. I don't think this to be the case. Ben told Locke, "Whoever moves the island can never come back." If Locke moved the island, he can't come back. Period. And the island wouldn't need someone who can't come back. If the island at that point wanted Locke it would have gotten someone else to move the island. So I don't think it can be Locke.

 

[mylan]

It is extremely difficult to pick the best episode, maybe a top ten, but when Locke wheeled out from behind the desk, that one moment when you got goosebumps realizing that you had seen the entire episode without picking up on it, is second only to last years finale, "we have to go back!"

 

[Holadem]

That's the moment that cemented the show as a must-see for me (Locke back story.)

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H

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I agree that Locke didn't move the island, although not for that reason in particular. For one thing, I'm not sure why the prohibition would apply to a corpse. (Assumig Locke is actually dead.) I'm less sure about the absolute impossibility of the "island mover" ever returning. Yes, Ben said that.

But at the very end of the episode he also said, "Jack, I said all of you. We're gonna have to bring him [Locke], too." (Emphasis added.) Now he may only have meant that he and Jack had to bring Locke with them when they left the funeral home. But he also may have meant that he intended to accompany the Oceanic 6 back to the island.

That's what I tend to think. Either Ben believes he's found some loophole in the "no return" rule, or he's not sure that whoever told him about it was telling the truth, or he wants back in so badly that he's willing to risk it despite the rule.

As far as I know Ben has never told anyone the complete, unedited, unfiltered truth about anything to anybody in the entire time he's been on the show, so I'm reluctant to believe anything based solely on the fact that "Ben said..." something.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

A testament to this show is that we can casually talk about what the island wants, as if the island is an intelligent sentient being. Do you guys believe that?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I wouldn't reject the idea out of hand. Certainly the notion that there is an intelligence connected with the island doesn't seem outrageous. Someone or something moved Heaven and Earth to get certain people to the island. It does seem that there is will, perhaps a personal one, behind many of the events of the series.

Unlike some, I am prepared to take the producers at their word when they say that there is nothing supernatural in the story, and the everything has a rational explanation - at least a rational science fiction explanation in a world where time travel and teleportation a lost civilization and other oddities are real. (As far as I know they never said that everything could be explained in terms of contemporary science, despite what some people have suggested.) So if we can rule out fate or or magic* or any kind of deity as the moving force behind all the mysterious events, we're left with some sentient agency - an individual, a group, something.

Could that something be the island itself? After everything else we've seen, I sure wouldn't rule it out.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Phil Florian]

Joe, you bring up a watercooler discussion I had with a co-worker this past week about this very topic: Is Lost science fiction or fantasy? You are hinting at the idea that maybe it is SF...it has some scientific underpinnings, though obviously based on theoretical science and not what I could call practical science.

To other points, though...if Ben said he could never go back, he meant that for now he wants Locke to believe that, nothing more. He might be right but he might just as well be lying. I mean, he is Ben, after all. Maybe the only way to go back to the island is as a corpse...which means that apparently at that point all best are off if you are going to be walking around again (Jack's dad seems to being doing much better since arriving in a box). Locke probably is trying out this theory himself in desperation. It would synch up with the Oceanic Six's disbelief of him committing suicide yet give him an in-character reason for doing so.

As to testaments to this show, for me it is the fact that mid-way through season 3 (where it was slowly waking up from the dreadfully slow season 2) I couldn't think how they could squeeze another season out of this show and now I am convinced they easily will fill the next two. Amazing.

On record, I think Constant was my favorite episode in a long while. It was the first truly romantic story in the series and one that, so far, has a happy ending. How cool is that?

What do folks attribute to the newfound joy in this show for this season (and the latter half of 3)? Was it bringing in a lot of new folks last year like Espenson and Vaughn while getting a bit more supervision from Abrams again (if he is truly keeping an eye on things at all). The shorter season for me was great. Every episode popped for the most part (a couple sagged a bit in the middle but not by much). Thumbs up. Will be a long wait for its return.

 

[TravisR]

I'm being a nitpicker but I think you mean Drew Goddard and not Jane Espenson. I saw an interview with J.J. Abrams where he said that the most he has to do with Lost now is that he gets scripts and it's all Lindelof and Cuse. Sorry for the nitpicking.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

For the record I've enjoyed every season.

It all comes down to pacing. When the end date for the show was given, the writers finally knew how much story telling real estate they had left to live with.

And now the story telling dynamics have changed. Instead of everyone wanting the characters to get off the island, now we want them to go back! Damn clever if you ask me.

The way the series is poised now, it does not seem like there is enough episodes left to tell everything!